As bad as I’ve seen him in a long time. Outperformed by Wilshere, albeit being asked to form part of a midfield 2 alongside Xhaka, who has the maneuverability of a pregnant yak, is a poisoned chalice indeed.

Bin Xhaka off, make Elneny the first name on the team sheet and decide which of Wilshere or Ramsey is worthy to be his +1, if we must persist with the ‘3-4-3’

Aaron Ramsey gave an honest assessment of the display afterwards, and this is what he said:

on the first half…
We had a half-decent start but we got caught out and Manchester City punish teams. They were clinical and we ended up 3-0 down. That’s why they’re top of the league and we have to accept that they’re there for a reason at the moment. We have a lot of work to do and hopefully we can start that on Sunday.

on whether City is a bogey team for us…
We’ve had some good results against Manchester City at home over the past few years. This season, they seem to have kicked on again. It’s no coincidence that they’re top of the league. They’re playing some fantastic football and they have so much quality. It’s one of those things where we have to just go again to start to pick up momentum on Sunday.

on what we need to give us a boost…
Things in football happen so quickly. We still have a lot of work to do in the league and we’re still in the next stage of the Europa League. There’s so much to play for, so hopefully we can win all our remaining games. It’ll be tough but that’s what we have to do.

on the game…
It was one of those games where it felt like we were in the game, but they punished us with three quality moves. That’s the difference at the end of the day and they’re top of the league for that reason. They punish teams so the game was over in the first half.

on whether tonight’s loss means top-four race is officially over…
No because mathematically it’s still possible. There’s 10 games left now so we have to really win every single one of them.

on the main targets for Arsenal at this stage of the season…
To win all the games, that’s our target. Hopefully we can finish in the top four with the Europa League trophy as well. Considering the situation that we’re in at the moment, that would be a very successful season for us.

on whether Europa League is top priority at the moment…
Both are equally as important. We have to get momentum going from somewhere. Hopefully we can start that on Sunday and take that into the first leg of the Europa League game.

He is obliged to do these interviews and answer the questions given to him. His PR training enables him to do that nicely, as he of course doesn’t think for a minute Arsenal will get top 4 or win the next 10 league games. Best ignored as it is irritating in the current climate

I wouldn’t be that bothered if we sold him, obviously a great player on his day and 2 big moments in 2 cup finals will always be respected but he’s kinda injury prone, we stuck by him when he was terrible for years. imagine a cheeky 40m offer from United or somebody, take it and run, would also be a big profit on what we bought him for